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In December, Google confirmed what many eagle-eyed houseplant trend watchers had believed for a while: begonias were back.

The search giant released data on the most popular garden terms that people had been looking for, and begonias came in third of the Top 10. And, although big, blousy blooms have been making a comeback in the floristry world, these begonias – I suspect – are of the indoor variety.

“The foliage-based begonias have definitely been on the up for the past two to three years,” says Lynne Dibley, of Dibley’s, the UK’s go-to nursery for begonias and streptocarpus. The family company has been growing, selling and propagating new kinds of the subtropical and tropical plants from their...